Other Characters
Many other characters will debut in Universal Rides and Adventure Squad. Judy and Jerome Judy and Jerome are breakdown cranes. They used to live in the station yard at Knapford, but now handle emergencies on the west side of the island, on the Harwick Branch Line. Bio TBA Personality Judy and Jerome are both heavy sleepers, but take their jobs very seriously, usually only awaking if there is an emergency (or if they think there is). The two also seem to be very talkative. They are always ready for an emergency and respond with zeal and vigour and enjoy working. Appearance Judy and Jerome are based on a Cowans Sheldon 30 ton breakdown crane. They are painted dark green-grey with yellow hazard stripes along their sides. They have brass nameplates on the sides of their cabs. Notes *Only Jerome was released in two-pack with Ryan, so the creator will have to get three Ryans to get both breakdown cranes. The coach will arrive with both the Donald and Douglas snowplow set and the Trackmaster/Plarail Harvey. *The arrangement for the breakdown train in Universal Rides and Adventure Squad is different in the original series, which has the coach being coupled up between the cranes. The cranes are oriented so that they face the coach. The coach that came with that original trackmaster Harvey is used, and it's front coupler is swapped with the rear coupler of the crane in the front. Because the coach is motorized, it can be pulled by any engine and both versions of Harvey. Ryan Ryan is a purple tank engine who takes goods on the Harwick Branch Line, while Daisy takes passengers. Bio TBA Personality Ryan is an affable engine, who goes out of his way to be kind and is concerned when he sees others in trouble. Ryan would like to be a hero, but he is not actually as brave as he wishes he was and has a tendency to panic a little in the face of danger. It does not put him off trying though. Ryan is direct and sincere, but he has a good sense of humour too and is not above making a joke at his own expense. Ryan also appears to be somewhat of a pushover, as evidenced by how easily Daisy was able to make him do her work. Appearance Ryan is based on the Great Northern Railway Class N2. Designed by Sir Nigel Gresley as a improvement of Henry Ivatt's Class N1, these locomotives were fitted with condensing apparatus because they were used for inter-city work in the Metropolitan areas of London, while later examples were usually seen around Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland. One member of this class, No. 1744 has been preserved and operates on the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire. In addition to being the sole survivor of its class, 1744 is also the sole surviving example of a Gresley designed tank engine. Ryan is painted purple with white and gold lining. He has the letters "GNR" painted on his tanks in gold. The number "1014" is painted on his bunker sides in the same colour. He also has brass nameplates on the sides of his boiler. Notes *Ryan uses an amalgamed model. *While his age wasn't shown in the original series, Ryan has been stated to be 11 years old. Duck Montague (affectionately known as "Duck" because of his supposed waddle) is a green pannier tank engine. Duck runs his own The Little Western branch line with Oliver. He holds great pride in being Great Western and this results in him having a strong work ethic. This can, however, be a cause for friction with his colleagues, when he insists that his way is the only right way to do things. In the Railway Series, Duck has two Great Western autocoaches named Alice and Mirabel. In the original series, he has three Great Western Slip Coaches. Bio TBA Personality Duck is a Great Western pannier tank engine. His real name is Montague, but he is usually called Duck, which he prefers. This is said to be because he waddles, though he does not really. Duck knows how to hold his own and tends to stand for no nonsense from any engines that might get ideas above their station and try to order him or others about; as a result of this and his strength, most tank engines look up to him, though he has never gotten along particularly well with Thomas, until the seventeenth season episode The Thomas Way and has since established a firm relationship with him. However, his moral code is not perfect and often favours fairness to kindness, like when he tells Percy that Thomas deserved his comeuppance at the scrapyard. He likes things to run like clockwork, without problems, or interruptions, which makes him a very efficient and loyal engine. He takes tremendous pride in the responsibilities bestowed upon him, particularly in his role of running his own branch line with Oliver, sometimes known as the "Little Western" as a result. Duck is cheerful, busy and tends to bustle about. He is very proud of his noble Great Western heritage, often claiming that "there are two ways of doing things: the Great Western way, or the wrong way", occasionally to the annoyance of other engines. He strongly admires City of Truro and enjoyed talking "Great Western" with him when he visited the North Western Railway. Duck is often welcoming of newcomers, even most diesels, in spite of having lies told about him by Devious Diesel not long after his arrival. He will often support the underdog, stick up for his friends and help others see the error of their ways. However, occasionally he does have the "Tank Engine sense" of teasing the bigger engines such as Gordon. Duck is also known to have a rivalry with James, but he has earned the respect of the bigger engines and has firm friendships with Edward, Percy, Oliver, Toad, BoCo and the Scottish twins. Appearance Duck is based on a Great Western Railway 57xx Class 0-6-0 pannier tank engine with added sand boxes. Duck's Great Western number, 5741, was that of a real 57xx, built by the North British Locomotive Co. in 1929 and scrapped at Swindon in 1958. 863 of these engines were built by various manufacturers over a 21 year period, making it the most produced class of British tank engine. 16 of these engines survive in preservation. However in Percy the Small Engine and The Eight Famous Engines, Duck was incorrectly illustrated as a Great Western Railway 64xx Class 0-6-0 pannier tank engine. In the Railway Series, Duck is painted in the Great Western Railway's Brunswick green livery with yellow lining and black wheels, splashers and pipes. He has the letters "GWR" written on his pannier tanks in yellow and red. He had brass GWR numberplates on his cab sides (5741) along with a builder's plate on either side of his cab, as well as a brass safety valve cover. Despite his appearance on arrival, it is said in The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways that he was in British Railways livery which would make sense for 1955. It is highly likely that he would have carried the Lion and Wheel insignia during this period. The Swindon trained Sir Topham Hatt soon allowed him to revert to his GWR livery though, possibly at the same time he was given above running plate sand boxes. It is worth pointing out his number plate is not necessarily the one originally assigned to him during his building. In the television series, Duck is painted in the North Western Railway's green livery, unlined, with a green safety valve cover and black wheels. The number "8" is painted on each side of his cab in yellow, upon a black background with a yellow border. Notes *The creator had a TrackMaster Duck during his childhood, and he successfully reclaimed it. It has middle wheels from an old-style TrackMaster James and currently bears new GWR and number details done with posca markers. Metal wire was used for his new handrails, and he later gained painted eyes and LED lamps, though on both sides rather than only on his right. * He is a crucial part of the duck Running Gag. Connor Connor is a streamlined engine from the Other Railway, designed for speed. He has his own rake of coaches painted in a similar colour scheme to his own. Bio TBA Personality Connor is a streamlined engine, designed for speed. Along with his friend Caitlin, Connor is an excitable and energetic character, who likes to be busy and loves to race. Both Connor and Caitlin are friendly and eager to get other engines to join in the fun with them. Appearance Connor is based on a New York Central Railroad J-3a Hudson built by Alco of Schenectady, New York. Ten J-3a Hudsons, 5445 through 5454 were built with streamlined shrouds designed by Henry Dreyfuss in 1938 in order to do heavy hauling at a greater speed, most famously hauling the 20th Century Limited between New York City and Chicago. Following a grade crossing accident with a sand truck in East Chicago in 1945, the J-3a's had their streamlining removed. All of the NYC Hudson locomotives were scrapped. Connor is painted teal blue with aquamarine and yellow lining. He has gold nameplates on the sides of his boiler. Notes *Connor's TrackMaster model was used, but had the tender of his Plarail model. Caitlin Caitlin is a streamlined engine from the Other Railway, who is designed for speed. She also has her own rake of coaches painted in a similar colour scheme to herself. Bio TBA Personality Caitlin is a streamlined engine, designed for speed. Along with her friend Connor, Caitlin is an excitable and energetic character, who likes to be busy and loves to race. Both Caitlin and Connor are friendly and eager to get other engines to join in the fun with them. Caitlin is particularly impatient and restless if she has nothing to do. She would rather be racing than sit in a station and be idle. Caitlin and Connor were introduced to the island to bring passengers from the Mainland. They zip on and off the island frequently using the Vicarstown Rolling Bridge. Appearance Caitlin is based on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad streamlined President P-7 Class. Her basis was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, USA in 1927. The member of the class that Caitlin is modeled after, No. 5304 President Monroe, was fitted with a streamlined shroud designed by Otto Kuhler and classified as the P-7a in 1937 for use on the Royal Blue train service between New York City and Washington, D.C. Its streamlining was removed in 1940 and it remained without streamlining until 1947, when it, along with three other class members was re-streamlined in a different design and re-classified as the P-7d class for service on B&O's Cincinnatian train service between Cincinnati and Detroit. It was retired from service and scrapped in 1958. One non-streamlined member of this class, 5300, is preserved at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. Caitlin is painted fuchsia with light grey and light blue lining. She has golden nameplates on the sides of her boiler. Notes *Caitlin's TrackMaster model was used, but had the tender of her Plarail model. Ashima Ashima is a brightly-painted Indian tank engine, who works on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway. She was one out of many engines to participate in the Great Railway Show, and competed in the Shunting Challenge, and of whom Thomas is very close friends with. Bio TBA Personality Ashima is usually found working on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in Southern India, where the steep incline makes the track very dangerous and difficult to climb. So it's no wonder that a small tank engine like Ashima shows no fear. Beautifully crafted with hand painted decal, Ashima's a fun, feisty and likeable engine who is more than happy to help out wherever needed. In Adventure Squad, Ashima became more daring than usual and more often than not will stow away with Thomas when he leaves for something exciting. This has more often than not placed her in bad situations, but she does come clean with her apologies. Additionally, she gained a more feminine nature. She also gained a hint of skepticism, doubting the existence of Harvey's class, a fact that Harvey uses in occasional teasing at her expense, much to her embarrassment. Since a young age, she has been frightened of thunderstorms. Appearance Ashima is based on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway X class. She is based off of the oil-burning version of the engine. These engines are built to run on metre gauge rails, whereas Ashima is standard gauge. Crystal is another member of this class. Ashima is painted hot pink with white and dark blue lining. Her wheels and bufferbeam are also painted royal blue, and she bears several bright green, white and orange patterns, inspired by Indian textiles and Henna Tattoos. In addition, the flower petal designs on her front cylinder block was based on her basis X-37385's. Notes *Ashima's TrackMaster Model also reuses elements from the hyper glow variant. Her TrackMaster Push Along model was also salvaged for parts. *While her age wasn't shown in the original series, Ashima has been stated to be 13 years old, having been finished seconds after Rajiv. Yong Bao Yong Bao (Chinese: 勇寶) is a Chinese engine who took part in The Great Railway Show, competing in the Best Decorated Engine parade. Bio TBA Personality Yong Bao is a kind and faithful tender engine from China, who pulls passenger coaches. He may not be the biggest tender engine or the strongest, but he once cleverly diverted an accident saving hundreds of passengers. Yong Bao was decorated for his bravery and painted bright red, which is a colour that symbolises celebration and happiness. Painted on his tender is a tiger which incites a sense of awe and admiration. Like Yong Bao, the tiger is full of life and embodies the spirit of being driven to achieve and make progress. These qualities make Yong Bao a Really Useful Engine. Despite being brave and a good example for many Chinese engines, he isn't above having fun, as on Thomas' visit to China on Chinese New Year, he scared the little blue engine twice. Appearance Yong Bao is based on a Chinese Railways RM class 4-6-2 Pacific, which were built by CSR Sifang Co Ltd between 1958 and 1966. Used in passenger service, these engines were eventually taken out of service by more powerful steam and diesel locomotives on the Chinese rail system. Three members of this class have been preserved; 1001 is on display at the China Railway Museum in Beijing, 1163 is preserved in Aioi, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan and 1247 is on display at the Shenyang Railway Museum. Yong Bao was originally painted dark blue but after saving the passengers on a derailed train, he was then later repainted in Chinese red with yellow lining on his smoke deflectors and boiler, and his running board is painted green. His name is written on the sides of his cab in Traditional Chinese, and the design of a tiger is painted on his tender. He also bears a dragon face on the front top of his funnel. Notes *Yong Bao is portrayed by his TrackMaster model. Philip Philip is a cheery little diesel boxcab. He works as a shunting engine at Knapford Station. He lives at Wellsworth Sheds. Bio TBA Personality Philip is a little diesel boxcab engine with a big personality. Philip is a comic character and a bit of a class clown. He is very eager and full of enthusiasm and he has an innocent, but very overblown sense of his own capabilities. Philip can be very funny, but some of the bigger engines have very little patience for the little boxcab, and find him annoying. Philip is strong, fast and likes to hurry about and can constantly boast about it. But Philip's confidence is as big if not bigger than anyone's and he is always willing to try and definitely believes in himself. His actions and attitude soon won him many new friends on Sodor, especially Thomas and Percy, but Gordon and James find his bragging a little hard to accept. Despite this, Philip can be the exact opposite if he chooses to. He is shown being quiet and enjoying the scenery, just like Toby. All in all, Philip reminds Edward of Thomas when he first came to Sodor. Appearance Philip is loosely based on the Pennsylvania Railroad's diesel-electric Class A6 "Boxcab" switcher with an added back door and a circular back, as well as loose couplings and added buffers. Philip is painted dark green and yellow with the number 68 on his sides in black, surrounded by a white circle with a black outline. Notes *Philip is portrayed by his Adventures, Wood, and TrackMaster representations. *While his age wasn't shown in the original series, Phillip has been stated to be 7 years old. Beau Beau is a mining engine with a mustache who works at the Grand Canyon. Bio TBA Personality Beau hails from the American Southwest. This gritty old-timer is able to help Thomas in a moment of need, fixing himself in Thomas' memory and making him forever grateful. Appearance Beau is based on the Central Pacific Railroad's 4-4-0 locomotive No. 60; the 'Jupiter' which made history as one of the two locomotives (the other being the Union Pacific No. 119) to meet at Promontory Summit during the Golden Spike ceremony commemorating the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The Jupiter was built in September 1868 by the Schenectady Locomotive Works of New York, along with three other engines, numbered 61, 62, and 63, named the Storm, Whirlwind, and Leviathan, respectively. These four engines were then dismantled and sailed to San Francisco, California, where they were loaded onto a river barge and sent to the Central Pacific headquarters in Sacramento, then reassembled and commissioned into service on March 20, 1869. The Jupiter was not the engine originally intended to take the special train carrying railway officials to the ceremony, the railway initially selected its 'Antelope' locomotive to perform this duty. However, that engine was struck by a runaway log while enroute to the ceremony and was damaged such that the Jupiter had to continue the journey with the specials' coaches coupled behind its regular train (which the special had been following closely behind prior to the accident), proceeding to Promontory with only the special train upon reaching the end of its regular route. In the 1870's, the engines' name was dropped, and it received a new boiler, funnel, and other upgrades, drastically altering its appearance. In 1885, the Southern Pacific Railway had acquired the Central Pacific, including the former Jupiter, and in 1891, the engine was renumbered as Southern Pacific no. 1195. In 1893, the engine was converted to burn coal, and later that year was sold to the Gila Valley, Globe and Northern Railway, becoming that railway's number 1, operating as such until scrapped in 1909. Full-size, operating replicas of the Jupiter and Union Pacific No. 119 were built in 1979 by O'Connor Engineering Laboratories for the Golden Spike National Historic Site at Promontory Summit, Utah. A replica of sister engine, No. 63, the 'Leviathan', was built in 2009 by David H. Kloke's firm, Kloke Locomotive Works of Elgin, Illinois. Beau has been slightly modified from his basis with buffers above his cowcatcher (which is flatter and shorter to acommodate them) and behind his tender, which also has a screw-link coupling. Beau's livery is based on the current one born by the Leviathan, as he is painted silver and red with gold lining. His boiler is painted silver, his cab is brown, and his wheels, tender and cowcatcher are red. His name and number are painted on the sides of his tender and cab respectively in yellow. Unlike the Leviathan, his lamp is gold instead of red, as is his dome. Trivia *He is potrayed by his wood model. Donald and Douglas Donald and Douglas (originally known by their old numbers, 57646 '''and '''57647, respectively) are twin Scottish mixed-traffic tender engines. Bio TBA Personality Donald and Douglas are Scottish twin engines. They are practical, peppery, proud and level-minded, but, despite their maturity, they enjoy playing practical jokes and have been known to impersonate one another in the past. They were fitted with nameplates to specifically end this element of their humour. Donald and Douglas are very able workers, strong performers and handle any task well. They are fully capable of being firm with the other big engines, such as Gordon and Henry and even the Troublesome Trucks know better than to try their tricks on them. They are both used to harsh winter conditions too. Coupled back to back, with a coach between their tenders, they are very capable of patrolling the lines, clearing them of the snow. The twins both pull their weight on the Main Line and both Duck and Edward's branch lines. They can enjoy a joke with any engine. They are happy to act as the brawn of the Fat Controller's steam-driven goods haulers. Both are smart. Between the two, Donald tends to be the charming, witty joker whereas Douglas is the quick-thinking, calmer-natured one of the pair. Both display a keen sense of wit and the pair usually get to have the last laugh, more often taking the moral high ground. But that does not mean they will not be just a little bit smug about it when a deserving engine meets their comeuppance. Donald and Douglas hate to be parted from each other, but, like most twins, they occasionally have their arguments among themselves and can squabble with one another. Also, Donald and Douglas used to have a strong dislike of diesels. But over time their dislike for diesels has softened and they appeared to have grown accustomed to their diesel companions. Appearance Donald and Douglas are both based on the Caledonian Railway McIntosh 812 Class 0-6-0 goods engine. Their numbers, however, would realistically place them in the 652 sub-class. One example survives in preservation. In the trackmaster scenes, they are based on the L&YR Class 28 with the tender of a Great Northern Railway G3 Stirling Single 4-2-2. According to the Railway Series, Donald and Douglas were painted black from construction and arrived on Sodor in BR black with red-and-white lining on their tenders. They remained as such (with the addition of numbers on their tenders in yellow with red borders) until it was decided that both engines could stay, at which point they requested to be repainted in NWR sky blue with red-and-yellow lining. They apparently like the colour, as it reminds them of the Caledonian Railway, where many of their shedmates carried a similar shade of blue. They received red nameplates with their names in gold at the same time. In the Railway Series their names are in all capitals, whereas in the television series only their initials are capitalised. In the Railway Series, they carry two builder's plates on the sides of their cabs. In the television series, the twins arrived in BR lined black and have remained in this livery ever since. Trivia *The twins have official TrackMaster and Plarail models, but due to costs, they were made from James' model with Emily's tender. Harvey Harvey is a tank engine with a crane mounted on top of his boiler, which makes him look rather unusual. He is involved in repair, recovery and industrial jobs on the railway. Bio TBA Personality Harvey is a relentlessly cheery, big-hearted, helpful crane engine. He has a very odd shape, due to his crane attachment atop his boiler, which he can be sensitive about should other engines make fun of it. However, he is very able to show that his crane is very useful in lifting cargo, trucks, and sometimes some smaller engines. He has a booming, thoughtful voice and large wooden buffers. He is happy to work anywhere, ready to help clear up after an accident, and offer words of care, comfort, and advice. Appearance Harvey is based on Dübs Crane Engine No. 4101, nicknamed "Dubsy", built in Glasgow, Scotland. "Dubsy" is presently based at the Foxfield Railway in Blythe Bridge, Staffordshire, England. Boomer is another member of this class. Harvey is painted burgundy with yellow and red lining and brown, square, wooden buffers. His name is written in yellow on his sides and the number "27" is written on both sides of his crane arm in yellow. Trivia *The creator's first Harvey was a coach-powered version. It was eventually replaced by a 2017 TrackMaster Harvey, though the coach still remained for the breakdown train.